21 posts / 1357 viewsLast Reply April 19, 2019

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Yesterday afternoon, I headed to my course to get in some range time and then short game practice. When I arrived at the dedicated chipping/pitching/bunker shot green, I found a guy chipping and he had, literally, several hundred range balls scattered all over the surface of the green (and beyond). It looked like a major hail storm had hit. He would stab a dozen toward one pin, then pick another and go at it. Never picked up the first ball. His supply was coming from one of those 10-gal or so sized buckets used by "serious" players. Picture this, except covering an entire 1/2 acre practice green:

It was an amazing display of lack of self-awareness and common etiquette, coupled with the most horrid chipping I'd ever seen.

What would you have done? I'll tell you what I did (and it got interesting) after I hear a few responses...

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I would have nicely asked if he minded if I chipped/pitched to one of the pins.

Assuming he said he didn't mind, then I would have cleared the balls between that pin and the area I intended to pitch/chip from and proceeded to chip and pitch like usual. I usually only chip with 3-4 balls and they're usually my gamers so if one did happen to go too far and got mixed with his, I would just walk up and pick it up as soon as I hit it so there wouldn't be any confusion.

Now if he said that he did mind or had issue sharing the green/area with me, I just would have gone and talked to a staff member and let them handle it from there.

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I'm honestly not sure what the problem is, provided there was nobody else using the practice green when you walked up. In the past I would routinely chip half a bucket (or more if I have them) at a time, then pick them up, cycle and repeat. I have a ball pickerupperer for this very thing. If I'm by myself on that chipping green, then I'm definitely going to be chipping at different locations, trying to vary my shots & distances. As soon as someone else walks up, I immediately stop what I'm doing and clean it up for the other person, after which I'm sure we naturally relegate to our respective (and separate) targets.

The other persons actual skill at the game has no dog in this hunt, unless he's chunking them at your head. It is practice, after all.

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I would have chosen the opposite end from where he was, grabbed the ball rake, cleaned an area, and proceeded to warmup/practice.

This is what I did. He freaked out of course. I knew this might happen, as anyone weird enough to take up an entire half acre with his "practice" is probably going to take offense that I didn't say anything to him first. I picked a hole towards a back corner, furthest from where he was currently practicing. He said "hey, what're doing?" And then I started to get a little angry and (probably needlessly) escalated the tone.

"Just trying to get a little space here to practice? Do you mind if someone else uses the facility today?" Yes, the quesion was rude/provocative, but I'm human you know? He then went into a profanity-laced tirade and stormed into the pro shop to confront the pro. I just stood there trying to figure out what I'd walked into, or started. 5 min later he stomps out gets in his car and screeches out of there. The pro told me the dude was certifiably insane and has been trespassed.

I just wanted to work on my pitching. Was hard to concentrate after that.

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This is what I did. He freaked out of course. I knew this might happen, as anyone weird enough to take up an entire half acre with his "practice" is probably going to take offense that I didn't say anything to him first. I picked a hole towards a back corner, furthest from where he was currently practicing. He said "hey, what're doing?" And then I started to get a little angry and (probably needlessly) escalated the tone.

"Just trying to get a little space here to practice? Do you mind if someone else uses the facility today?" Yes, the quesion was rude/provocative, but I'm human you know? He then went into a profanity-laced tirade and stormed into the pro shop to confront the pro. I just stood there trying to figure out what I'd walked into, or started. 5 min later he stomps out gets in his car and screeches out of there. The pro told me the dude was certifiably insane and has been trespassed.

I just wanted to work on my pitching. Was hard to concentrate after that.

Actually, I'm ok with what you did - I don't see your response as rude. I love to see maniac's freak out too.

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I would have nicely asked if he minded if I chipped/pitched to one of the pins.

Assuming he said he didn't mind, then I would have cleared the balls between that pin and the area I intended to pitch/chip from and proceeded to chip and pitch like usual. I usually only chip with 3-4 balls and they're usually my gamers so if one did happen to go too far and got mixed with his, I would just walk up and pick it up as soon as I hit it so there wouldn't be any confusion.

Now if he said that he did mind or had issue sharing the green/area with me, I just would have gone and talked to a staff member and let them handle it from there.

Courteous communication and being cool wins the day. Stop being such an adult.

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This is what I did. He freaked out of course. I knew this might happen, as anyone weird enough to take up an entire half acre with his "practice" is probably going to take offense that I didn't say anything to him first. I picked a hole towards a back corner, furthest from where he was currently practicing. He said "hey, what're doing?" And then I started to get a little angry and (probably needlessly) escalated the tone.

"Just trying to get a little space here to practice? Do you mind if someone else uses the facility today?" Yes, the quesion was rude/provocative, but I'm human you know? He then went into a profanity-laced tirade and stormed into the pro shop to confront the pro. I just stood there trying to figure out what I'd walked into, or started. 5 min later he stomps out gets in his car and screeches out of there. The pro told me the dude was certifiably insane and has been trespassed.

I just wanted to work on my pitching. Was hard to concentrate after that.

You're fine. It appears that there was certainly an opportunity to attempt to keep it from escalating. But, knowing what happened and what the pro said, it probably didn't matter what you did, you were going to get the same response from him.

I may have said something before just starting to sweep the balls but the end result would be the same. Based on the guy's reaction, i wonder if he's on the autism spectrum.

I have noticed when the level of anger is wildly disproportionate to the situation there is something going on in that person's life that is highly stress inducing. It could be job loss, an affair, a death, child using drugs, or it could be mental illness. To clarify, I don't think there's anything wrong with covering the green with balls if you are alone. I have done similar when alone. But, if you would have walked up on me in that situation I would have said let me clean up my mess so you have a place to chip.

I would be careful of any person exhibiting an antisocial behavior. Never know when they will go postal. I never understood why someone would practice chipping with more than a few balls. Usually, I only have two balls for chipping practice. It gives me a time to think what I did right/wrong as I go get my balls.

Some people seems to chip with a large bucket and then retrieve their balls.

I rather practice correctly with fewer balls than mindlessly chipping a whole bucket.

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I Agree with keeping the score out of your head and talking up how you can get a new low score if you only just............
... my current two bogey holes are the last two at my course so I never want to add anymore pressure during the round ..and esp. on the last couple if I know I'm scoring well
what I have been doing PSR is just trying to relax and feel like I have zero pressures on my shot + swing
I think thats why I have some ripping great recovery shots Vs a set of bad shots I use too awhile ago when I use to build pressure after bad shot and rush and try harder to hit the perfect swing>>
I recommend trying to swing with less effort more of the time esp. when it comes to short game

Just started looking at this topic, what's the helicopter drill ?
Today I've done driver and 4 wood hitting a ball on a string for about 15mins, I also do a 5 different arm shoulder exercises using 1kg hand weights. I'm recovering from 11 weeks in hospital, I'm very lucky to be still hitting golf balls lol...

84- at the monthly medal which gave me a 2nd out of 31 players position off the Blue Tees(which gave me a course HC-16)
Net - 68 (67 won it)
wasn't playing all that amazing with a few offline drives and a few shocking strokes ....but I seemed to recover on every hole with a brilliant chip/pitch/iron etc or didn't score any worse than a Bogey till the 17th --PAR3 where I tripled Bogey after I pulled a shot off the tee and backed it up with some slack short game ...wasn't happy and thought I blew any chances of a decent position ....esp. when on the 18th I drove into bank blindspot to the green and sent the next 8i right of the green on another bank !!!! but yet again chipping saved me hitting the flag and stopping the ball less than a foot from the hole for a PAR...
8xPARS
9XBOGEYS
1xD-B

Day 181
Played 18 today. Didn’t play very well but had a couple good runs of pars to break 90. A scratch player in my foursome pointed out I was collapsing my arms in the backswing, so I changed my swing thought and worked on backswing for the remainder of the round.
Got home and did a little mirror work with the same thought and also hit some balls.